General Description

The GMDSS CSO course was conceived in 1996 on the approach to the full implementation of GMDSS on 1st February 1999. A training need was identified amongst SAR and Coast Radio Station Officers to fully understand the application of maritime radio communications procedure pertinent to a coast station. It was found that even qualified seafaring staff transferring to shore stations identified gaps in their knowledge. A clear example of this phenomenon is to be found in the operation of the Navtex system. Seafarers must be able to switch on and configure their Navtex receiver, while shore staff must also learn how to configure messages and the process required to achieve the broadcast. These are two very different dimensions of the same system. The GMDSS CSO course was therefore designed to shadow the GMDSS General Operators Course (GOC), and by tracking each and every syllabus item the key learning points were reconfigured to the needs of a coast station operator. The course deals not only with GMDSS electronic systems, but also with the theory and practice of radio voice communications, in particular, distress, urgency and safety broadcasting.

Course Aim

The GMDSS CSO course aims to enable students to be proficient in the operation and procedure of a coast radio station, whether a commercial radio station or that co-located or integrated with a Rescue Coordination Centre. The course will provide the knowledge and skills for the professional application of radio equipment, and the implications of such equipment towards an effective outcome to all search and rescue operations.The GMDSS CSO course aims to enable students to be proficient in the operation and procedure of a coast radio station, whether a commercial radio station or that co-located or integrated with a Rescue Coordination Centre. The course will provide the knowledge and skills for the professional application of radio equipment, and the implications of such equipment towards an effective outcome to all search and rescue operations.

Prerequisite Knowledge or qualifications

No previous knowledge and skills of maritime radio communications are required to undertake this course. It will however prove beneficial if the student has at least a short experience of the operation of maritime radio telephony (RT). The course will be delivered using the English Language, and students should be orally fluent in its use. With proper notice, it may be possible to organise an interpreter service should the client deem this necessary.

Target Audience

Coast Radio Station and Rescue Coordination Centre managers and staff of all ranks or grades who use, rely on the use of, or manage the provision of any or all forms of GMDSS radio communications for the successful prosecution of maritime SAR incidents. The course will also be of use to the Commanders, Captains or Skippers of declared SAR facilities, or Naval response vessels and aircraft, to help them understand the options and decisions available to the SMC. Ex-seafarers who have qualified to the GMDSS GOC standard will bring a solid subject knowledge to the course, however, they will be challenged re-orientate their skills to those of a shore side operator.

Detailed Course Content

• History and origin of the GMDSS system
• Effective communications, verbal and non-verbal
• Telephone procedure
• Radio telephony procedure
• Radio wave propagation
• Voice technique
• Prowords & the language of radio
• Routine communications procedure and regulations
• Distress, Urgency and Safety procedure and regulations
• Shore station watch keeping
• GMDSS overview – Sea areas and carriage requirements
• Vessel and shore station obligations
• Digital Selective Calling (DSC)
• Satellite communications
• Cospas/Sarsat LEO, GEOSAR & MEOSAR
  • Infrastructure and alert routing
• EPIRBs, PLBs, ELTs
• Navtex
• SART
• Alternative systems – MOB Guardian/Spot Beacons
• Databases and alert routing
• AIS, VTS and LRIT
• Implications of GMDSS to SAR
• GMDSS II – the future of GMDSS